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I told myself I wouldn't start another guitar project until my Baja Tele was done, but since I am waiting for the clear coat to harden for polishing, there is no harm in getting started. We have had some really nice Musicmaster projects lately and I hope mine can live up to the hype. Luckly, a Musicmaster is one of the simplest electric guitars to put together.

I bought a vintage 1978 Musicmaster Body in Fiesta Red and a white pickguard from Cooterfinger. Nice BroDeal. There are a couple of paint hiccups around the bridge and neckplate areas, but not enough for me to refinish it at this time. The paint is good enough to go with for now. The body was obviously routed for a humbucker in the bridge, but I am just going to leave it alone for now. I also plan on a set of Bronco Knobs to enhance the general sex appeal of the build.






I just bought a 1966 Musicmaster II bridge on ebay and it should be here soon. I am excited since it will match up perfectly with my existing body.



So I still need a couple of items and should be pretty straight forward to finish.
Wire Assembly
Pickup
Neck
F Neck plate and screws
Tuners
Strap Locks

YES! It'll essentially be my 78's brother. I can't recall, did I send you a set of bronco knobs?

A word of advice, if you get a Vintage neck and Reissue tuners, you will have to take out a millimeter or so to make them fit. Royal pain the the ass with a knock off dremel and a little drum sander bit. If you decide to go with an Allparts, those are drilled for Kluson tuners. If you want to keep it authentic i'd definitely get F tuners. I'll keep an eye out on ebay for a neck for ya

Haze wrote:YES! It'll essentially be my 78's brother. I can't recall, did I send you a set of bronco knobs?

A word of advice, if you get a Vintage neck and Reissue tuners, you will have to take out a millimeter or so to make them fit. Royal pain the the ass with a knock off dremel and a little drum sander bit. If you decide to go with an Allparts, those are drilled for Kluson tuners. If you want to keep it authentic i'd definitely get F tuners. I'll keep an eye out on ebay for a neck for ya

I got a set of the 6 Bronco knobs from you earlier. I would like the F- Tuners if possible. I hate seeing the necks where you see the F tuner mounting holes but they changed out the tuners.

The other big decision will be the pickup for sure.

Loving the project mate!

taylornutt wrote:
The other big decision will be the pickup for sure.

If I were you I would just have a look on ebay

I found an old '70s strat pickup

and a 70's schaller pickup after about 5 mins.
They both have flat polepieces and I would rock either one of them in that musicmaster (with a black robroe cover)

Mine was like that. I had a spare set of kluson tuners but I wanted to keep it a close as possible to original specs. I had a look on ebay and out looks like $250-300 is the going rate for a music master 2 or duo sonic neck and $500-1000 for a jag neck! Even reissue jag and mustang necks go for big bill

Here is my pickup "dilemma" if you can call it that. I have 3 options that all have their pros & cons in addition to Serfx's suggestions.


1) Vintage Musicmaster pickup - I like the idea of keeping the guitar as close to vintage as possible, but that of course increases the cost of the project significantly. There is a 1978 Musicmaster pickup on ebay right now for $125. That's pretty pricey for just one pickup!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

2) Custom Musicmaster pickup from Lindy Fralin - They make handwound Mustang pickups from stock to high output. I would probably want something slightly hotter than stock since there is only one pickup. The cost of one of these pups $75, which is $50 cheaper than a vintage one. I bought a set of Texas Special Jazzmaster pups from them that were slightly hotter than stock and they have been nice.

http://www.fralinpickups.com/mustangs.asp

3) 65 Mustang Reissue Neck pickup - Everyone always gives high marks to these pups and I can get one for $20-$30. Definitely the friendliest pickup on the pocketbook. My biggest reservation is that my next "from scratch" project after this guitar is going to be an Ash Mustang and I don't want to have the same neck pickup in both my Musicmaster and my Mustang. Seems kinda redundant.

Give me your thoughts on this and let me know where you stand. You can vote in my poll as well.

my vote is for a fender 'vintage' noiseless strat neck pickup. fucking beautiful sound.

I vote none of the above. I vote Curtis Novak.

scandoslav wrote:I vote none of the above. I vote Curtis Novak.

If I go with the custom pickup, I will look at the Novak as well. Heard lots of good things for sure.

The only thing about paying close to $100 for a single pickup is that you can get a vintage one around that price

My first choice would be to stay vintage on the pickup and the neck. I just don't want to overpay for it. The only part of the guitar that doesn't have to be vintage is the pots and jack.

Neck plate? Tuners? NECK SCREWS???? PICKGUARD SCREWS!@ STRAP BUTTONSA?>WED<SDFMNH
shit

Haze wrote:Neck plate? Tuners? NECK SCREWS???? PICKGUARD SCREWS!@ STRAP BUTTONSA?>WED<SDFMNH
shit

None of that has to be vintage either. Mostly thinking neck, body, bridge and pickup for the essential vintage parts.

I've got a gorgeous vintage 65 Mustang neck (stamped 8DEC65B), compete with original white button F tuners and string tree. I paid a bit over $400 for it ($425 IIRC). I was going to put it on my Duo Sonic project... I had it on there for all of five minutes and pulled it off - it had too much of a U shape for my tastes (I have pretty short fingers)... so I got a '94 MIJ Mustang neck, which fits my hands much better.

Not trying to spam, but I might be willing to sell it if you're interested. I know it's on the expensive side, but it's also cosmetically pretty darned clean - about the cleanest one I've ever seen. I was actually bummed about the shape of it, because having a real '65 neck that looks this good on my guitar would have been mucho mojoriffic - but alas, a neck that fits my hand is far more important to me than when and where it was made.

...not trying to steal phil's potential offload, but i've just this very day started my vintage jag fund so have decided to get rid of some gear. i've got a '78 musicmaster neck with F tuners doing nothing, and could perhaps be persuaded to part with it.

stewart wrote:...not trying to steal phil's potential offload, but i've just this very day started my vintage jag fund so have decided to get rid of some gear. i've got a '78 musicmaster neck with F tuners doing nothing, and could perhaps be persuaded to part with it.

Stewart, I am definitely interested in that. Could you post pictures and give me an idea what you are looking to get for it? Send me a PM on it. I am a little cash strapped at the moment, but I would love to work out something if possible.

Phil, that sounds like a great neck, but that is probably more than I can spend at the moment for a neck.

I'll dig it out and take some photos when I get a chance.. The frets are decent, only change is a new nut. I need a certain amount for it in order to hit what I need for a jag, so can't do a bro price unfortunately. I wouldn't even be selling it but I've made my mind up to do an vintage, and they're pricey.

...not trying to steal phil's potential offload

No worries Stewart - your neck sounds like the more appropriate one for his project.

I am sad I can't buy Stewart's musicmaster neck and pickup. It would basically finish the guitar for me, but I have to pay for bills. I got out the new bridge and parts and did a mockup to give you a little taste of what she will look like. The Bronco knobs look hot!

damn, that looks awesome. what's up with stew's neck? too pricey?